The shape of the problem
A small business runs on scattered information. Client threads in Gmail or Outlook, contracts in Drive or Dropbox, decisions in Slack, invoices across email attachments and QuickBooks. Traditional search requires you to remember where you stored something and search inside that one platform. That is the search you avoid because it is slow and the answer might not be there.
What changes with an AI workspace
An AI workspace reads across every connected tool at once. Instead of remembering where, you describe what. “What were the payment terms in the Acme contract?” “Show me every email about Project Phoenix from last quarter.” “Find the budget spreadsheet Sarah sent in September.” You get an answer back with a cited link to each source.
How the connection works
- Authorize each tool through read-only external-source retrieval tools. The assistant gets read access only.
- Ask in plain language. The assistant reads across every connected tool at the same time.
- Verify by clicking the cited source links in the answer. The assistant points back to the file, the email, or the Slack message it pulled from.
What read-only access actually permits
Read-only external-source retrieval means the assistant can read records you authorize and nothing else. It cannot send, modify, move, or delete. It cannot place orders, fire emails, change calendar invites, or refund anything. The connector is a read pipe.
Where the workspace is most useful
Client follow-up: a client asks about a deliverable discussed three months ago. Ask the assistant for the specific agreement, get the cited file and the email thread that closed it. Finance prep: your accountant needs Q3 expense data. The assistant pulls every invoice across Gmail attachments, Drive folders, and OneDrive. Team handoff: a teammate is out sick, you need their latest project update. The assistant finds it, wherever it lives.
Privacy and security
Direct MCP does not retain raw customer files or full connector response payloads; scoped operational logs may persist for up to 30 days. Records are read on demand to answer a question, then released. Your AI provider's plan policy governs its conversation handling. SOC 2 aligned architecture. CASA Tier 2 certified by DEKRA. Every answer is auditable through the cited source links.
Where to start
The fastest way is to start with one connector. Most operators authorize Drive or Gmail first because the first “find me X” question lands within minutes of the connection. From there, additional connectors take seconds each. See the full connector list or read about private AI for business.
Common questions
How do I use AI to find files and messages faster?
Connect your business tools to an AI assistant through read-only external-source retrieval tools, then ask in plain language. CorpusIQ wires Gmail or Outlook, Drive or OneDrive or Dropbox, Slack, and 40+ other tools into ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity. The assistant returns the file or message with a cited source link. Setup takes about five minutes.
Which AI assistants does CorpusIQ support?
CorpusIQ supports ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity. Pick whichever assistant you already use, or all three.
What does read-only external-source retrieval mean?
The file-retrieval tools read authorized records without writing back. The only tools that accept writes are CorpusIQ control-plane tools, which manage your own CorpusIQ configuration and never write to a connected system.
Does CorpusIQ store my files?
Direct MCP does not retain raw customer files or full connector response payloads. Local AUDIT logs record raw query text and tool parameters plus bounded result summaries; the Azure Log Analytics workspace retains those logs for 30 days. Optional indexed search has a separate lifecycle. Authorized source context is sent to the selected AI client, whose plan and settings govern conversation handling.
Can the assistant move or delete my files?
Read-only retrieval tools cannot modify, move, delete, or send vendor records. The only tools that accept writes are CorpusIQ control-plane tools, which manage your own CorpusIQ configuration and never write to a connected system.
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